NOC: Introduction to Airplane Performance

Prof. A. K. Ghosh
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 05
Concept of Life Aerofoil: Wing: Complete Aircraft

(Refer Slide Time: 00:10)

See for a symmetric aerofoil, if this is the v, this is the v, and this is the chord line and if
I join this, this is the chord line. What do we notice here? Remember, chord line we
defined as if we join leading edge and trailing edge by straight line that becomes the
chord line. So, when here the leading edge and trailing edge are joined and that become
the chord line for a cambered aerofoil, this is cambered and this is symmetric.

Now, what is in your mind? If the air is coming like this, do you think this will produce
any lift? The answer is no, because we remember as far as George Cayley’s guideline to
us, On the Concept of Generation of Lift. Lift will be generated when there is an angle
between the velocity and the surface. In this case, it this there is no angle, so it will not
generate any lift. So, if I draw C L which is nothing but, lift divided by half rho v square
s versus angle at alpha equal to 0, I will also get a 0 lift or a 0 C L. But, for cambered to
see, you verify this chord line, it is no more parallel to the velocity vector.

You could see actually effectively it has an angle with velocity vector, even if it is at
alpha equal to 0, similar condition. So, in this case what we will see that, even at alpha
equal to 0, there will be some lift. I repeat this, one way to explain is this chord line and
there is an angle between the chord line and the velocity vectors. So, what we talked
about alpha equal to 0, a same velocity condition it will produce a 0 lift, but here because
of this camber, because the chamber is there, the some angle some surfaces is there,
which is making the angle with the velocity vector.

So, we know the alpha equal to 0, it will produce lift. As I increase this angle, what will
happen? As I increase this angle what will happen, there will be more lift, because from
this George Cayley explanation, the lift will be function of angle for a given area, given
other conditions. So, as I increase the angle the lift will increase, so you will find up to
certain point lift will go on increasing as alpha is increased.

But, beyond this certain point you will see that, beyond a certain alpha you will see that
lift is no more increasing. In fact, it is going down like this, similarly for here going
down like this. What exactly is happening? Typically, here if I see there is a limit which
you called alpha stall and this value you called C L max. Similarly, here you call it alpha
stall and this C L max. What do you say that beyond a certain angle called alpha stall, the
flow will no more remain attached. There will be a separation and there will be a stall
and the lift will reduce and drag will increased. Flow will no more remain attached or
there is some sort of a flow separation. What is actually, loosely happening?

(Refer Slide Time: 05:17)

If you see, if an aerofoil is an angle, now see what is happening here. The air flow is
coming like this, now as it comes backward, it is relative here. What again you are seeing
that, if I take a control surface? I see here, as the air particle moves in the backward
direction, the area at 1, 2, 3, 4 all these stations, the area is going on increasing for a
given control surface. So, area increasing means the velocity v 1, v 2, v 3.

So, v 1 is greater than v 2, v 2 is greater than v 3, that is as area is increasing as, so

maintain the same amount of fluid flow, the velocity has to reduce. So, v 2 will be less
than v 1, v 3 will be less than v 2, v 4 will be less than v 3 and this implies, the pressure
at 3 is greater than pressure at 2, pressure at 2 greater than pressure at 1. So, it will
experience an adverse pressure gradient or at this stage, we already talked about adverse
pressure and this adverse pressure will try to discourage the fleet particle to move in the
direction and moreover, because of skin friction already some part of energy of the fluid
is taken out.

So, there will be an angle at which they are, the flow will not be able to move backwards,
at some point it will separate and that is, we say the flow is no more attached. Stall is
much more than this, but we need to know that when we are talking about this zone,
where it is almost linear. I am talking about attach flow and when I am talking here, I am
talking about separated flow. There is a substituted aerodynamics to explain all these
things, we are not going deep into it.

We only need to understand one thing, that for symmetric aerofoil I can write model C L
as d C L by d alpha into alpha. What is d C L by d alpha? D C L by d alpha, because it is
linear, straight line, almost straight line, so here this is a slope. What does almost straight
line in practice will find? Beyond 6, 7 degree some sort of a non-linearity comes. So, but
we are assuming here, after this point this is straight.

So, I can write C L as slope of this into alpha, but for cambered, but cambered aerofoil I
will write C L as C L naught plus C L alpha into alpha. This is just a question of, because
for cambered aerofoil I will be actually doing it like this, that alpha equal to 0, there is
some C L which is I will be referring to as C L naught, so I can model C L as this. In text
book, when we try to distinguish between C L because of aerofoil and C L because of
wing, we use strict nomenclature.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:05)

For aerofoil, we use C small l and for wing we use C capital L of course, in aerospace
there is confusion, even for only moment we write C l. So, let us be very clear, we are
talking about lift coefficients. So, for aerofoil I will write C l equal to C l naught plus C l
alpha into alpha, where C l naught equal to 0 for symmetric and C l naught not equal to 0
for cambered and for wing, I will write C L equal to C L naught plus C L alpha into
alpha, again C L naught is 0 for symmetric and C L naught not equal to 0 for cambered.

Why this is important? You will soon realise that as far as flying the machine is
concerned, if I have to maintain lift equal to weight, I need to fly at a particular C L
which will be governed by the weight, speed, etcetera, etcetera. But, a question is how do
I generate this C L when I am flying, the pilot how will you generate? That answer will
come from here, if I know what is the C L naught of the airplane, if I know what is C L
alpha of the airplane, then I know if I have to generate C L which I know priory, then I
know how much angle of attack I should fly.

So, I know how much I should turn the airplane, so this is the, that is why in performance
this is important, the back of your mind, please. Now, I am talking about aerofoil and
wing, for the whole aircraft we will try to find out, for C L aircraft, what is C L naught of
the aircraft and what is C L alpha of the aircraft into alpha. Please, see the distinction.
First one is aerofoil, second one is wing and third one I am talking about aircraft. But,
now what is the difference between aerofoil, wing and aircraft? Why we are using these
three terms? Let us see that.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:31)

When I am talking about aerofoil, imagine aerofoil is basically a 2D concept, 2D that is

imagine this is ((Refer Time: 11:44)), you have seen this aerofoil shape and imagine this
having a span infinite, that is infinite here, infinite there. So, what is the basic message is,
as the flow is coming like this, it has no way to go towards cross, right or left. So, always
the flow is over the each aerofoil section. So, there are no flows around right or left,
because these are infinite span.

So, that is why you called aerofoil is a 2D concept, but in actual practice what happens.
See, when I come to the wing from, so this, from here when I come to the wing, many
text books used a word called finite wing. This finite comes from here, the aerofoil were
infinite span. So, no cross flow is allowed, all the flows are around the chord of the
aerofoil. Now, when there is a finite wing; that means, this is an infinite, let us see what
happens.

If it is flying at an angle like this, the pressure here is more than the pressure on the top
that is why there is a lift. As I come near the tip of the wing here, what happens? There
the pressure is more and pressure is less, so air will try to come from the bottom to the
top and they go on for me a vertex, vertices like this. And since, they go as a rotational;
they go into a rotational motion, the vertices are formed. So, rotational kinetic energy is
required and that comes at the cost of the energy of the airplane, so we call this actually
induces drag.

So, that is why in the finite wing we have wing tip vertices. If I draw the diagram, if you
see this is the wing cross section I am drawing, this is the span. Let us say, this is the fuse
large, now what is happening. Because, if there is a lift; that means pressure at the
bottom they are more as compared to pressure at the top. So, what is happening at the tip,
because it is the high pressure, so flow will go like this and they form vertices, which
draws rotational kinetic energy from the energy of the airplane and hence, energy is lost
and it affects the speed, so we call it drag, because of this vertices or we call these are
induced drag.

Induced drag, because of this vertices, too many times we are called vertex drag, many
time they are called lift induced drag. Why lift induced? Because, these vertices are
formed, because of the lift, because of the lift there is a pressure difference and because
of finite wing, there is a vertices form at the tip and so it gives a vertices drag, induced
drag, lift induced drag.

Note here, if I locate infinite, then this situation will not come, so it becomes 2D or it
becomes an aerofoil. That is why aerofoil will never encounter conceptually any such
vertex or lift induced drag, so that is why it is finite wing.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:24)

Then, we use for this aircraft, C L for the aircraft. So, we started with aerofoil where
infinite span, wing, finite wing, we form there is the vertices and because of vertices,
there is a drag and because of the vertices, we will find the vertices will be coming like
this. So, there will be inducing a downward component of velocity to the local angle tag
of the wing or even at the tail will be changed, will be reduced, so effectiveness will go
down.

So, in a language of airplane, aerodynamic modelling, we can always say that the lifting
characteristic gets changed because of downwash or the C L alpha may also changed
because of downwash. Now, for C L alpha of the aircraft or C L of the aircraft we write
C L, because of wing, C L because of fuse large, C L because of tail plus C L because of
miscellaneous component, that is to say. If I know what is the C L alpha of the wing, if I
know what is the C L alpha of the fuse large, if I know what is the C L alpha of the tail
and assume that, all of them are based on same reference area.

Then, if I simply add these things together, then I am expecting that, that will be C L
alpha of the whole aircraft, you may not be correct. In fact, we are not correct if we are
deal like that. For simple reason there are many such reasons, but one of those, see this is
the C L ((Refer Time: 17:07)). When I compute the C L alpha of the wing, this is the
wing in isolation.

But, in the actual practice, what happens? When there is a fuse large, it gets let us say if
this is the fuse large ((Refer Time: 17:21)), then I am attaching it like this on the wing.
So, there is a body to wing interference here. Similarly, if I calculate for body alone,
when I bring near the wing there is a wing body, body wing interference, same thing
happens in the tail.

So, when I am talking about total C L of the aircraft, I need to take care of body wing,
wing body. Similarly, for tail interference factor which modify the overall C L of the
aircraft. So, that is why we use three terms distinctly.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:17)

One was C L alpha of the aerofoil, understanding very clear this is 2D, 2D flow that is no
cross flow like this. Second thing, where we use small l C L capital alpha for a finite
wing, why because of the finite wing there will be vertices, the actual effect the drag and
the lift comes slow depending upon the size and third one is your C L alpha of the whole
aircraft which will be summation of sum of C L alpha of the wing plus C L alpha of the
fuse large plus C L alpha of the tail plus any other components are there. But, we should
be very careful that we have an appropriate be taken, no interference factors between
body wing, wing body, tail body, body tail all in together.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:17)

If I come back to C L again, I said this lift by half rho v square free stream into S
reference. Similarly, you said C D as drag by half rho v square S reference, again this is
free stream. We have being using the word free stream, I am talking about S reference,
let us understand what are these things. Let us draw an aircraft and let us say, this is the
relative air speed. Text book, always you see V infinity is written to explicitly mention
that is the free stream condition. What is the meaning of free stream condition? We are
tried to adjust that.

If I come close to these bodies, so ((Refer Time: 20:28)) here, here, here, here, what will
happen, you see or here, further no matter. If this is V, 1 and if I take this point 2,
meanwhile the velocity at point 1 and point 2 to be same or speed at point 1 and point 2
to be same. We could see very clearly, at point 2 because of the contour of this fuse
large, there will be a change in speed here, because you could see at this point, again the
area goes on decreasing if I take control surface.

There is a natural tendency for the flow to accelerate. I am talking about low speed flow.
So, local velocity and the velocity of air further away from the body are different,
similarly if I come here, I come here by the time flow reaches here, there is a viscous
effect on it, what about the contour effect and then, the velocity will never remain same.
So, when I am try to non dimensional values, this lift or drag which velocity should I
take?

Because, at each point the velocities are different, that is why we take the free stream
velocity and the understanding is this, it is attain very far away from the body. So, that
there is an influence on the speed of the free stream, so it remains constant, that is why
we talk about free stream, so that we can define a non dimensional quantity consistently.

Now, S reference for aircraft, s reference is the wing area. Wing is the primary
component, which produce the primary thing the lift and wing area is the S reference for
aircraft and for a missile, you will find missile is wingless missile. Just it has got like
this, you may find this maximum cross sectional area max that sometime becomes
reference area. But, coming back to aircraft let us not forget when I talk about S
reference, it is the wing area.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:57)

So, what we have very quickly learn that, when I try to model lift, I will model it like this
half rho square S, S means S wing, v means free stream. After v square is free stream
that in pressure into C L and C L is basically lift by half rho v square, which is the free
stream of whole into S, which is wing area.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:40)

With another observation on free stream, dynamic pressure, if I draw an airplane again, if
you see a tail here and this is a V. The free stream pressure here, here, here and here
could be different, because the flow, the energy might have lost. However, if I have an
engine here, mounted here, this downwash can create or argument, change the free
stream dynamic equation on the tail.

So, that is why we need to be very, very careful when I am talking about lift and drag,
that when I try to finally, talk about overall fuel of the airplane. Then, it has to be non
dimensional as with the free stream dynamic ratio, but local lift could be on the local
dynamic pressure.